All of a sudden Charu announced that she also must and would learn English. Her parents at first took it as a great joke and laughed heartily over their little one's latest caprice. But she effectually washed away the humorous part of the proposal with a flood of tears; and her helplessly doting guardians had to take the matter seriously. Charu was placed under the same tutor and had her lessons with Tara.
But studiousness did not come naturally to this flighty little creature. She not only did not learn herself, but made it difficult for Tara to do so either. She would lag behind by not preparing her lessons, but would fly into a rage, or burst into tears, if Tara went on to the next one without her. When Tara was through with one book and had to get another, the same had to be procured for her also. Her jealousy would not allow her to put up with Tara's way or sitting alone in his room to do his exercises. She took to stealing in, when he was not there, and daubing his exercise book with ink, or making away with his pen. Tara would bear these depredations as long as he could, and when he could not he would chastise her, but she could not be got to mend her ways.
At last, by accident, Tara hit upon an effective method. One day, as he had torn out an ink-bespattered page from his exercise book and was sitting there thoroughly vexed about it, Charu peeped in. "Now I am going to catch it," thought she. But as she came in, her hopes were disappointed. Tara sat quiet, without a word. She flitted in and out, sometimes edging near enough for him to give her a smack, if he had been so minded. But no, he remained as still and grave as ever. The little culprit was at her wit's end. She had never been used to begging pardon, and yet her penitent heart yearned to make it up. Finding no other way out, she took up the torn-out page and sitting near him wrote on it in a large round hand: "I will never do it again." She then went through a variety of manœuvres to draw Tara's attention to what she had written. Tara could keep his countenance no longer, and burst out laughing, The girl fled from the room beside herself with grief and anger.—She felt that nothing short of the complete obliteration of that sheet of paper, from eternal time and infinite space, would serve to wipe away her mortification!
Bashful, shrinking Sonamani would sometimes come round to the schoolroom door, hesitate at the threshold and then take herself off. She had made it up with Charu, and they were as great friends as ever in all else, but where Tara was concerned Sonamani was afraid and cautious. So she usually chose the time when Charu was inside the Zenana, to hover near the schoolroom door. One day Tara caught sight of the retreating figure and called out: "Hullo, Sona, is that you? What's the news: how is Aunt?"
"You haven't been to us for so long," said Sonamani. "Mother has a pain in the back, or she would have come to see you herself."
At this point Charu came up. Sonamani was all in a flutter. She felt as if she had been caught stealing her friend's property. Charu, with a toss of her head, and her voice pitched shrill, cried out: "For shame, Sonamani! To he coming and disturbing lessons! I'll tell mother." To hear Tara's self-constituted guardian, one would have thought that her sole care in life was to prevent the disturbance of his studies! What brought her here at this time the Lord might have known, but Tara had no idea.
Poor, flustered Sonamani sought refuge in making up all kinds of excuses, whereupon Charu called her a nasty little storyteller and she had to slink away, owning complete defeat.
But the sympathetic Tara shouted after her: "All right, Sona, tell your mother I'll go and see her this evening."
"Oh! Will you?" sneered Charu. "Haven't you got lessons to do? I'll tell Master masai,[1] you see if I don't!"
Undeterred by the threat, Tara went over to Dame Cook's quarters one or two evenings. On the third, Charu went one better than mere threatening. She fastened
- ↑ Respectful way of addressing or referring to a teacher of English. Tr.
